Scandinavian All-Stars – The best players from the subregion in Northern Europe

The Scandinavian region hold a rich history in Counter-Strike and have always been on the very top of the elites till this day. In the early days of Counter-strike, if you asked a fan what was the number 1 country in the world in terms of talent and success, they would all likely give the same answer. Sweden dominated much of 1.6 and the first few years of CS:GO. Out of the first six Majors, nine of the 12 finalists, and five out of the six winners were Swedish teams.

The Swedish nation dominated the early days, with teams such as fnatic and Ninjas in Pyjamas at the top of the ranks and placing high in many events. But much has changed in recent years. The CS:GO scene is much more diverse, and Sweden has taken a back seat to nations such as their neighbors from Denmark.

Once upon a time, Ninjas in Pyjamas were the best CS:GO team in the world. Up until SLTV StarSeries V finals in March 2013, the Swedish Ninjas had a very impressive LAN record. They had, until this game, won 87 consecutive maps without losing a single one. When the Polish-side from Virtus.pro finally managed to take down NiP by the close score of 16-14, the “87-0 era” was over and NiP was no longer the unbeatable team everyone strived to take a map from. No team has been even close to reaching the same map win streak as the Ninjas had from the launch of CS:GO up until 2013.

Here's how it happened.

In 2015, fnatic did the impossible. They showed the CS:GO world what true dominance look like. The Swedish squad won three Valve Majors and more impressively, two of those were Majors back-to-back. And they did so at a time when the game was blowing up, when ESL One Katowice hit one million concurrent viewers in 2015. CS:GO was emerging as one of the biggest esports in the world and fnatic were front and centre.

Denmark was tired of always being in shadow of their Swedish neighbors, it was time for Denmark’s domination. 2016 marks the inception of one of the greatest teams to ever compete in CS:GO, Throughout the recent years, the Danes have made strong argument to not just be the best team in current CS:GO, but the greatest of all time with coach zonic. The Danish squad are the first team to achieve four Major wins in total, passing fnatic’s record of three.

This is the story of Astralis.

Scandinavian All-Stars

It’s not a secret that our All-Star team consists of players from Denmark and Sweden. Scandinavia has offered many players throughout the years that have defined Counter-Strike and cemented their names in the history, so it hasn’t been easy for us to pick only 5.

For the AWP role, we have picked Nicolai “device” Reedtz who is arguably the most consistent player of all time, taking the spot on our team over fnatic’s AWPer Jesper “JW” Wecksell. The players we have chosen to serve our team as riflers are: Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer, Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund, and Robin “flusha” Rönnquist who all three are exceptional players with game sense and skill across multiple incarnations of the game that are unmatched. Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander concludes the team and will serve as the captain owing to his experience. Four Majors for an in-game leader in Counter-Strike means more than usual. It means not only playing at the top level, but staying on top of the ever-evolving strategic trends.

Nicolai “device” Reedtz (Denmark) AWPer | 25 years

Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer (Sweden) Rifler | 29 years

Christopher ”GeT_RiGhT” Alesund (Sweden) Rifler | 30 years

Robin ”flusha” Rönnquist (Sweden) Rifler | 27 years

Lukas ”gla1ve” Rossander (Denmark) Captain/IGL | 25 years

All time stats:

device (Astralis)

1.16 Rating | 80.7 ADR | Total kills: 33431

olofmeister (No team)

1.07 Rating | 73.9 ADR | Total kills: 27482

GeT_RiGhT (Retired)

1.09 Rating | 76.6 ADR | Total kills: 32791

flusha (No team)

1.05 Rating | 81.9 ADR | Total kills: 32442

gla1ve (Astralis)

1.00 Rating | 76.0 ADR | Total kills: 25776